How to Train Your Dragon Shorts
by KevinLazar
Summary: This is where I am going to be posting my short works, ones that I do not feel need to be posted on their own. Most if the content should not surpass T, but some of it is a gray area, mainly for mentions of depression and suicide. If I get enough interest for a chapter, I will look into making it a full story. See special warnings in the author's notes if necessary.
1. The Reign of His Shadows

A/N: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon.

This is just something short I wrote while I was away from my laptop, sorry about the formatting, this is my first time using the mobile app...

Warnings: Mentions of depression and suicidal thoughts. No deaths.

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As Hiccup laid in his bed, away from the warmth of Astrid's touch, he could feel the gaze of the shadows. They watched him from their home in the endless, freezing darkness. Hiccup remembered the way the shadows called to him, how clearly he could see them.

He remembered being so lonely that he had sought out the companionship they offered, how they had been the only ones who had not only accepted his presence, but sought it out.

As they kept him company, he could feel his sanity fraying, knowing he should push them away, but he decided that he would rather have companions than sanity.

Eventually, Hiccup decided that he would leave the last of his sanity to follow the shadows into the void, to spend eternity with them.

They watched him as he wrote his farewells, giving him praise when he grabbed the dagger beside him and moved to deliver his letters. They followed him through the dark alleys of Berk, ready to lead him into the dark when he finished preparing for the journey.

As he turned a corner, Astrid ran into him, knocking him off balance. He knew this would be his only chance to act, but before he could slice his throat, and with it, his final ties to the light of the world, he felt the dagger ripped from his grasp, the cold steel catching the light of the torches as it spun through the air.

The shadows urged him to reclaim the blade and embark on his journey, but as he made his move, he felt Astrid's arms wrap around him, holding him back, her radiant warmth driving back the wailing shadows.

At that moment, he realized that what the shadows had offered him was not acceptance. They had never truly cared for him or his happiness, they had only ever wanted to destroy him.

As he finally drifted to sleep, he realized how lucky he was to be laying there rather than walking in the void.

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A/N: Thanks for reading, see you soon.


	2. The Shadow King

A/N: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon.

Another small thing I came up with while I was looking at the previous one...

Warnings: Mentions of bullying, death, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

* * *

My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the son of Stoick the Vast, chief of Berk. Berk is a small island located twelve days north of Hopeless, and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death, solidly on the Meridian of Misery. The Hooligan tribe has been on Berk for seven generations, but there are few buildings that are more than a year old. I suppose that you could say that we had issues with pests. Most places have mice or mosquitoes, we had dragons. For three hundred years, dragons had raided us, stealing our food and burning our homes. Most people would find another place to live, but we are Vikings, to say that we are stubborn is an understatement.

Throughout my life, I have fought against the shadows that I saw around me. When I was a young child, I could see them, but only if I tried. Over the years, they grew stronger, always visible in the darkness, following me around. At first, I had no fear of them, but when I was ten, that changed.

I was laying in my bed, the shadows watching. I had grown to be comfortable around them. I noticed that one of the shadows seemed more solid than normal, stepping forward. I didn't think anything of it at first, but then I heard it; a faint whisper, a sound that evoked a feeling of fear. The primal fear of the darkness. At first, I looked around me, trying to find who was whispering, but there was nobody else in the room. The shadow crept closer, and then it spoke, "Greetings young one, what is your name?"

I shrank back as I stuttered out my name to the being before me, "My name is Hiccup, what is yours?"

The rasping voice replied, "My name is of no importance. Are you afraid of the dark?"

"N-no."

"You should be, for not all that enter the darkness leave again."

And then it stepped back into the darkness, but I could still feel its gaze upon me, still hear the rasping voice.

After that, I did my best to avoid the dark, to stay as far away from the shadows as possible.

Over the next three years, more of the shadows gained substance, but I didn't hear their voices again.

I was thirteen when I next heard the voices of the shadows around me. I had become isolated from my peers, the loneliness messing with me. As they began to pick on me, I found that I could not stay out of the shadows as much as I would have liked. One day, as I hid from my tormentors, I felt an icy touch on my shoulder. I jumped and spun around, expecting to see Snotlout or the twins, but what I saw was many times worse; there was nothing but a shadow, standing there, its arm extended towards me.

I felt the same fear I had before, stronger than ever. I wanted so badly to run, to escape the darkness, but I was frozen in fear. As it spoke, it was as though I was standing outside in the heart of winter, "I see that you are afraid of the dark now, but I will not hurt you, I can feel your suffering, I can see how lonely you are. I am here to offer you companionship."

When I found my voice, I spoke, "I don't believe you, why did you choose me? You could have chosen someone stronger or better than me, so why me?"

"You are special, your suffering means that you understand what it is like to be in the shadows, to have nobody around you, to be unseen. We are just as alone as you, you keep us company, why would we hurt you?"

"I will think about it, I am still unsure if I can trust you, but I am willing to give you a chance."

At that, the shadow nodded and stepped away, fading from my view. Not even five minutes later, Snotlout made his way into the place where I was hiding, standing less than three feet away, but then he just turned and left.

That night, the shadow came back, asking if I had accepted its offer, and I said yes. I was done being alone, and even the fearsome shadows were better than nobody at all.

Over the next year, I began spending more time in the shadows. I felt my sanity fraying as I was near them, but I was too desperate to care. My sanity was a small price to pay for companionship. There were days where I thought only about when I could next go to the shadows, and one day, the shadow made me an offer. "We have seen how much you hate to be away from the shadows, what if I were to tell you that there was a way that you would never have to leave again? Would you accept it?"

I should have known that something was wrong, but I had grown to trust them, knowing that all I had to do to escape my tormentors was to make it to the darkness. I replied, "What do I have to do to make it so that I never have to leave again? I would do anything to join you."

"The only thing you must do is cut your ties to this world, then we will lead you into the void, where you can be happy."

I was too far gone to think anything of cutting the last of my ties, my life.

They watched me as I wrote my farewells,

_Snotlout,_

_I suppose that this will come off odd, but thank you for all that you have done, you have helped me to find happiness with the shadows. I wish you the best of luck as the chief._

_Your cousin,_

_Hiccup the Freed_

_Astrid,_

_Thank you for being there through the years, you helped me to see the joys in life when we were younger. You inspired me to take this journey, to face my fears and overcome them. I used to be afraid of the dark, but your words convinced me to let the shadows lead me into the darkness, where I can finally be happy._

_Your lover,_

_Hiccup the Brave_

And finally,

_Father,_

_I know that we never got along, and for years I blamed it on you, but now I see that I am just not meant to be a part of this world. I am embarking on a journey to join the shadows, to find happiness. I hope that when you pick your next heir, that it is not Snotlout, he would not be fit to run the village._

_Your son,_

_Hiccup the Forgotten_

They urged me to grab my dagger, to grab my letters and deliver them. They followed me as Iwalked through the village, stopping others from seeing me.

I rounded a corner, only to collide with Astrid, knocking me off balance. She yelled out, "Hiccup, behind you!"

I simply replied, "I know, they are waiting for me to undertake my journey with them, I am not afraid of them, they would never hurt me. Please make sure these letters make it to the right people." And I raised my dagger, but before I could draw it across my throat, she shouted "No!" as she ripped it from my grasp and tossed it away, the cold steel catching the light of the torches in the dark.

The shadows urged me to retrieve my dagger, but as I went to move, I felt Astrid's arms around me, holding me back.

As I felt the warmth of her embrace, the shadows reached out, grabbing hold of her, trying to yank her back, but she fought them off, forcing them away from me. She dragged me into the light of a torch, drawing her axe when one of the shadows stepped into the light.

At that moment, I realized what I had almost done. How the shadows had never cared for me. I realized how they had only wanted to destroy me. I picked myself up, moving towards the shadow, before I shoved it back, telling it that I was not going to let it lead me into the void, and it listened, fading back into the darkness.

I never saw it again, and I hope that I never will.


	3. What Lurks in the Dark

A/N: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon.

Another short story that I wrote, this time concerning what lurks in the shadows, not shadows themselves...

On an unrelated note, I am going to try to get my next chapter in "Run, Hide, Pray" up in the next week or so.

Warnings: Mentions of bullying and death.

* * *

My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the son of Stoick the Vast, chief of Berk. Berk is a small island located twelve days north of Hopeless, and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death, solidly on the Meridian of Misery. The Hooligan tribe has been on Berk for seven generations, but there are few buildings that are more than a year old. I suppose that you could say that we had issues with pests. Most places have mice or mosquitoes, we had dragons. For three hundred years, dragons had raided us, stealing our food and burning our homes. Most people would find another place to live, but we are Vikings, to say that we are stubborn is an understatement.

I have always been different from my peers. When I was afraid of the dark, my father always told me that Vikings aren't afraid of anything, that there was nothing to fear, but I knew better.

In the dark, I saw things that were straight out of my nightmares and heard their low, haunting when I was in the dark, I would even feel their frigid touch.

I tried to tell people what I had seen and heard, but they never listened. As the years went by, I began to think that I was crazy, but what I saw one night told me that it was all true. That was the night I learned why every person has been afraid of the dark at some point in their lives.

I saw a Viking walking through the streets of Berk, not caring about the darkness. I was about to turn my focus elsewhere, but then I saw the shadows following him. I called out to him, trying to warn him, but when he turned to me, he, tendrils of darkness wrapped around him, and as he was dragged into the darkness, he let out a scream that still haunts me before silence fell once more.

The next morning, the pieces of the man's body were found in an alley, a look off pure terror etched upon what remained of his face. I tried to tell people what I saw, but they just brushed it off as an animal.

I gave up on trying to tell people what I saw, avoiding the darkness as best I could.

One night, I saw the beautiful Valkyrie Astrid Hofferson walking through the streets, not an unusual sight, but as I watched her, I realized that something was off—the nightmares were stalking her. I knew that I should have stayed inside, in the safety of the light, but I could not just let them take her. I grabbed my dagger and ran out the door, racing to reach Astrid before they could grab her. When I turned the last corner, I saw the tendrils of darkness begging to reach out. I urgently yelled out to her, "Astrid, watch out!"

As Astrid turned she screamed and staggered back when she saw the tendrils coming at her. Although I knew I would come to regret it, he grabbed her wrist, and with a strength I didn't know I possessed, dragged her away from the darkness, stepping between her and the grasping darkness. I closed my eyes waiting to be dragged off, but it never came.

When I opened my eyes, the tendrils were gone and Astrid was still there.

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A/N: If there is interest, I will definitely expand this chapter, but this is what I have for now...


	4. Walking the Shadows

A/N: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon.

This is another short work that I wrote. I am currently working on chapter 4 of "Run, Hide, Pray," which should be going up some time in the next couple of days, sorry that it has taken me so long to get the next chapter out, I just started drowning in school work, and that has taken up my time recently.

Warnings: Mentions of bullying and death.

* * *

All humans have been afraid of the dark at some point in their lives, but only a few of us know why. Most people say that it is fear of the unknown or that we cannot see, but those of us who walk in the shadows know the real reason. We can see what lurks in the darkness, monstrous beings that belong only in the realm of nightmares. My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, heir to Berk, and I am one of the few who call themselves shadow walkers.

My story begins when I was five years old, when I first saw movement in the shadows. At first, I tried to see who was there, but soon found that there wasn't a person in sight. I tried to tell my dad how the shadows moved, but he didn't believe me. As I was only a child, the things I saw lurking in the dark gave me nightmares. I would often wake up in the middle of the night, screaming as I saw the same things in my room as in my nightmares. It was sometimes hard to tell if I was awake or not.

When I was ten, I found out more about my abilities, learning that there was more to it than just being able to see what lurked in the darkness, but also to fade into it myself. I made this discovery soon after Snotlout, my cousin with an ego the size of Stoick's gut, and the twins, the two most destructive forces on Berk, began to bully me.

At the time, I was still terrified of the dark, but I was forced to hide from my tormentors. One day, as I was running from them, I stepped into the shadows, praying for them not to see me, and it seemed to have worked. When they came around the corner, they stopped and looked around, not noticing me standing next to them.

Over the next couple weeks, I discovered that I had faded into the darkness that day, and I spent my time mastering it, and using it to escape the trio of tormentors. Soon, I discovered that I could not only vanish into the shadows, but bring creatures out of them.

One day, when I had failed to escape from Snotlout and the twins, I felt my anger rise, then heard their screams. When I looked up, I saw one of the nightmarish inhabitants of the shadows approaching. As my peers ran and my anger faded, I was astonished to find that the creature did too. After that, I began to experiment with this new ability, but I soon learned the consequences of my foolishness.

I was thirteen at the time of the incident, and I had become less scared of what lurked in the dark, thinking that I could control the monsters, but I was wrong. In retrospect, I probably should not have tried to summon anything from the shadows that night. It had been a hard day for me, and when I practiced that night, I lost control of the creature and it bolted.

I raced through the village, trying to find the being before something happened, but when I turned a corner I knew I was too late. I saw tendrils shoot from the dark and grab a viking, dragging him into the dark. Then the screams started. As soon as I could, I banished the creature back to the shadows, but it was too late. The next morning, they found the scattered pieces of the man's body, a look of sheer terror on what was left of his face. To this day, I am still haunted by the sounds of the man's screaming and what the body looked like. After this incident, I made a promise to myself not to summon anything ever again, but I broke that oath only two years later.

It was the second day of dragon training, and we had just faced off against a Deadly Nadder when Astrid snapped at me. When she snapped, I felt the last strand of my sanity snap too. At that moment, I let it all out. All the anger I had held in over the course of my life; the anger at my peers, my father, and my tribe, I just didn't care what happened anymore.

#

Gobber and the teens all stumbled back from Hiccup as they saw his stony expression and icy gaze, then they saw the tendrils of dark mist coming off of his body, the chill of death in the air. They heard whispers coming from the shadows and felt the frigid touch of the growing darkness.

They screamed out in pure terror, trying to stop what was happening, but Hiccup coldly stated, "I have had enough of the suffering and the torment, you have all made my life Hell, now it is time for me to return the favor."

They turned to run, but they froze in place when they saw the fearsome creatures between them and the exit, coming closer with each passing moment. Astrid spun and called out, fear coating her voice, "Hiccup, please stop! Please don't do this to me, I never meant to hurt you!"

Hiccup calmly replied, "Is the mighty Astrid Hofferson scared? Just like her poor uncle Finn who froze in battle."

Astrid's anger spiked when she heard his words and was about to speak, when Snotlout got there first, "That's no way to speak to my girl Useless!" before charging at him.

Snotlout lunged forward, his hammer poised to take off Hiccup's head, but it went right through. Hiccup let out a chuckle that quickly became a laugh that sent chills down their spines before he stated, "You cannot hurt me anymore, I have had it with all of you, with all of Berk, you should have thought before you acted! Now you will all suffer the consequences of your actions."

Just then, Gothi arrived at the arena, seeing the creatures that were moving forward on the poor group, and she intervened, forcibly banishing them from this world before hobbling into the arena, whacking Hiccup with her staff to snap him out of his trance. Once she saw him starting to regain control, she began to write on the floor.

Gobber translated, "'iccup, ye shouldn't have brought those heirs, ow… horrors into this world."

Hiccup stood there for a moment before asking, "Gothi, can you see what lurks in the dark too?"

She replied, "I can, I too am a shallow, ow, crazy old lady, ow… shadow walker, and I am stoppin' you from makin' the same mistakes that I have."

Hiccup looked ashamed of himself as he saw the looks of terror in the eyes of those around him before being reassured by Gothi.

She simply said, "Just be glad that ye didn't hurt them 'iccup."

#

Since that day, my life has gotten better, and the bullying has stopped. All it took was nearly killing everyone on Berk with monsters from the shadows to get their respect.

Never again did I summon a nightmare, on purpose or by accident after Gothi trained me on how to control my powers over the shadows. I am grateful that she was there that day to stop me from killing them all, for saving Astrid, who is now my loving wife. Even now, I am afraid of the dark. Everyone should be afraid of what lurks in the dark, even if they cannot see it.

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A/N: I think that this short work is on of my better ones, feel free to let me know what you think.


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